Labor Dept. accused of echoing Nazi slogan in social media post

A controversial social media post from the Department of Labor has poured gasoline on already smoldering accusations that the Trump administration is amplifying rhetoric and imagery linked to extreme right-wing ideologies.

The video in the post, shared Saturday, features a quick-cut slideshow of artworks depicting glorified scenes of American history, foregrounded by a statue of George Washington.

The caption above that video reads, “One Homeland. One People. One Heritage. Remember who you are, American.”

Social media users quickly noted similarities — in word, form and sentiment — between the Labor Department’s post and a slogan used by the Nazi Party.

“US Government posting a version of ‘Ein volk, ein reich, ein führer,'” said Terry Virts, a former NASA astronaut and current Democratic congressional candidate, in an X post. “I don’t see how this ends well.”

The slogan “Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer” translates to “One People, One Country, One Leader.” It was “one of the central slogans used by Hitler and the Nazi Party,” according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The two messages are not a word-for-word match, to be sure. But while experts caution against jumping to conclusions, many see numerous other examples of the Trump administration — including the Labor Department — echoing white supremacist language, ideas or aesthetics online.

Bill Braniff, executive director of American University’s Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab, said he believes that, “When you look at this one post in the context of all the others, it’s not an accident.”

Even at face value, the post raises red flags, Braniff said in an interview. The assertion of Americans having “one heritage,” for instance, clashes with the nation’s history of taking in people from all over the world and establishes the idea of an “in group” and an “out group,” he said.

Jon Lewis, a research fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, agreed.

“You don’t want to try and ever read into the tea leaves on something that might not be there,” he told CNBC. But “at a certain point, you have to ask how many times until it’s not a coincidence anymore.”

“At a certain point, you can’t even really call it a dog whistle, it’s just a whistle,” Lewis added in an email. “How many times will official [U.S. government] accounts post openly white supremacist content without any repercussions?”

The Labor Department, led by Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment. A spokesperson for the department previously said, “The social media campaign was created to celebrate American workers and the American Dream.”

That comment was given in response to The Guardian’s report on union leaders denouncing the Labor Department over the post.

“It is no surprise that a fascist regime would post fascist propaganda on a fascist social media network like X, but it remains concerning to see the DOL making posts that serve a fascist, white supremacist agenda,” Puneet Maharaj, executive director of National Nurses United, the country’s largest nurses’ union, told the outlet.

On Wednesday, ahead of diplomatic talks on President Donald Trump‘s increasingly aggressive efforts to acquire Greenland, the White House shared a possibly AI-generated cartoon showing two dog sleds at a crossroads, with one path leading to the U.S. and the other leading to Russia and China.

“Which way, Greenland man?” read the text above that image, which was posted on the White House’s official X account.

Critics have accused the account of echoing “Which Way Western Man?,” the title of a 1978 book defending Hitler and advocating for a white nationalist and antisemitic worldview. The book was written by William Gayley Simpson, said to be a member of neo-Nazi group the National Alliance.

The phrase in recent years has gained popularity on the far right. It has been used in memes in which an image purporting to represent modern society is contrasted unfavorably with an image representing tradition.

The White House’s post wasn’t the first time a version of the phrase had appeared on government social media accounts. 

Five months earlier, the Department of Homeland Security had posted an ICE recruitment…